Davis picks financier for NFL talks.

While Eli Broad, Michael Ovitz and L.A. city officials have been hustling to bring a new National Football League team to the state-owned Memorial Coliseum. California Gov. Gray Davis has pretty much sat on the sidelines.

But no longer. The governor has tapped William J. Chadwick, a Los Angeles real estate investment banker, to be his point man on issues related to bringing an NFL expansion team to the Coliseum.

Chadwick said in an interview last week that his role is to assure the state gets the best deal possible if an expansion team is brought to the Coliseum.

"I'm not a politician, and I don't have an agenda," Chadwick said. "I am good on big deals. He wanted me to look at this as a big deal - that if we do anything, that it be reasonable from an investment standpoint, from an economic standpoint."

Meanwhile, Broad and Ovitz seemed to be getting closer last week to merging their respective investment groups, which have been competing to own an expansion team at the Coliseum.

"We're making progress. I don't want to go into a lot of detail every time we meet (with Ovitz's group)," Broad said, adding that both he and Ron Burkle, Ovitz's partner, have been traveling separately, so that the two sides have not met in person since earlier this month. "There are certain things going on that are positive. I don't want to get into details."

Mark Fabiani, an advisor to Ovitz, characterized exchanges between the two groups as "a telephone call, a conversation here and there, nothing more than that. It would be wrong to read anything more into it. ... We are trying to exchange ideas, but it still is a very informal process."

Nevertheless, Mayor Richard Riordan, a close friend of Broad's who has been tracking the football negotiations, said last week of the possible joining up of the two teams: "Right now I'm very optimistic. I think the pieces are starting to come together. I'm more optimistic today than I ever was."

Davis appointed Chadwick late last month to the board of the California Science Center, an unpaid position. At the same time, the governor also asked Chadwick to be his point man on the NFL negotiations, since the California Science Center is in Exposition Park, adjacent to the Coliseum.

The Coliseum is governed by the Coliseum Commission - a body comprised of city, county and state appointees and officials. The commission's lease on the Coliseum expires on Dec. 31, 2005.

Because any lease with an NFL franchise would need a term longer than that, Chadwick's role will be to represent the state's interests in any future lease negotiations, as well as other real estate-related matters.

Davis' office said the governor was not available for comment last week. Michael Bustamante, his press secretary, said Davis tapped Chadwick "because he has a tremendous amount of confidence" in his abilities.

Chadwick, who has known Davis since the late '70s (when Davis was chief of staff to former Gov. Jerry Brown), was formerly a tax attorney and partner at the law firm of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP.

Others say that Chadwick is moving quickly in meeting with the various parties - the NFL, potential owners and members of the Coliseum Commission.

John Semcken, executive vice president of New Coliseum Partners LLC, the group headed by Broad and real estate developer Edward P. Roski Jr., said Chadwick has met with NFL officials in New York.

"He's mostly getting up to speed and trying to convince the league that the state has a great desire to do the deal," Semcken said.

Assemblyman Roderick Wright, D-Los Angeles, whose district includes the Coliseum, concurred, adding that both he and state Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Culver City, who represents the Coliseum's district in the upper house, have met with Chadwick.

"He's just getting started," Wright said. "It's just kind of learning for him who's on first seeing where the bodies are buried."